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Levern Hamlin scrapbook

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  • Theatre of the People exists at all may in one sense be credited largely to the influence of the Playmaker family. Under the messianic leadership of the late Professor Frederick H. Koch this university group, of which both Paul Green and Kermit Hunter are graduates, earned for itself a national reputation as the home of the folk play, a regional drama created by native wrilers. An electric little man, dressed characteristically in a Norfolk jacket and puffing contentedly on a pipe, "Proft" Koch imbued his students with the doctrine of creative self-reliance. "Write what you know," "Drama is r'ght on your own doorstep," and "Believe in yourself were phrases which he skillfully ingrained into his students' thinking. So instead of aping Broadway, they wrote and staged plays about their own lives, touring them adventurously throughout the broad expanse of the Old North State, and into other parts of the country. As might be expected, the early folk plays of this group were relatively simple, and sometimes pretty rough-hewn. But gradually a tradition and a skill were built up, and a sizable body of really good plays began to accumulate. These folk plays were indeed a drama of the people, by the people, and for the people, as Archibald Henderson so aptly dubbed it. They gave expression to grass-roots democracy, the democracy of that fictitious realtiy, the average American. They reaffirmed his inborn dignity, and gave voice to his stubborn independence, his rich sense of humor, his fervent patriotism and his belief in beauty and in God. When The Lost Colony was first conceived, Paul Green was already a Pulitzer Prize winner and the leading dramatist of the South; it is evident that he was the ideal man to write the Roanoke play. And it is also natural that the Playmaker group was called on by the local association to assist in staging the production. This collaboration between the local sponsoring association and the college dramatic group is a natural and workable arrangement, and it has been the plan adopted in many cases. Today the three North Carolina dramas all use Playmaker staff and students in key assignments. In its ideal form then, the outdoor historical drama would seem to be primarily a drama of democracy, and to belong most fittingly to the people, both spiritually and physically. In our production of Unto These Hills, presented in the heart of the Cherokee Indian Reservation in the mountains of Western North Carolina, we tell an important historical story—the epic clash of the Bed Man and the White Man from the arrival in America of Hernando DeSoto, to the tragic Removal of the Cherokees to the West. Our story ends before the Civil War, but for the audience the story may have just begun. For the fate of the American Indian, not only in the past, but in the immediate future, has now become the concern of the spectator. The flaming hero of the Battle of New Orleans, Andrew Jackson, so justly beloved as a champion of American democracy, has become more than a hero—he has become a man who made mistakes. Tsali, the simple, uneducated redskin, has also become a human being—an unassuming man of the soil, who reluctantly but bravely gives his life, and the lives of his sons, that his people may be saved. And out of this clash of the White and the Indian has come a realization that America can find its salvation, both at home and abroad, only through a real confederation of men. In this age of the screaming rocket and cataclysmic nuclear reaction, our hearts cry out for spiritual guidance, for some light by which we may glimpse at least a trace of hope in the murky future. Perhaps these dramas of American history, by the magic of the theatre, may serve as a lantern to the souls of men. THE LOST COLONY Oldest of the outdoor dramas, The Lost Colony is being presented for its seventeenth season on Roanoke Island at Manteo, North Carolina. Written by Pulitzer prize winner Paul Green, The Lost Colony tells in swinging free verse, and with lavish use of music and dance, the story of Sir Walter Raleigh's atempts to plant an English colony in the wilderness of the New World. Staged on the very spot where the first English settlers landed in 1588, it tells of the eary hopes and hardships of the little band, of their dreams of a democratic empire, of the birth of Virginia Dare, and of their disappearance forever into mystery, leaving only the word CROATOAN carved on a tree within the fort. The Lost Colony is staged in Waterside Amphitheatre at Fort Raleigh at 8:15 p.m. nightly except Mondays through September 1. Admission prices: reserved seats, $2.50; general admission (twelve years and over) $2.00; general admission (six to twelve years) $1.00. WILDERNESS ROAD Written by Paul Green, Wilderness Road is being presented for the third season by Berea College at Berea, Kentucky. The story of Wilderness Road, a "parable for modern times," is simple, leading with the fictional Freeman brothers, John and Davie, who are marked by the differences which split Kentucky in two and set brother against brother in opposite camps of the American Civil War. The drama is indigenous to the area. It is the story of Kentucky as a borderline state, eagerly sought by both north and south, only to be eventually caught up as the object of a bloody tug-of-war. It brings into sharp focus the impact of the war on a community of mountain people and shows that frontiers are social and spiritual rather than geographic. Wilderness Road is presented nightly except Sundays at 8:15 p.m. (central daylight time) through August 31, at Indian Fort Theatre. Admission prices: reserved seats, $3.00 and $2.50. On sale on the day of the performance only are 316 unreserved seats at $1.75. HORN IN THE WEST This is the sixth season for Kermit Hunter's Horn in the West at Boone, North Carolina. It is a warm, exciting human story of the men and women who carved a civilizat:on out of the wilderness of the southern Appalachian highlands during the late 1700's. It gives the story of how a loyal Englishman in 1770 finds himself faced with the same great problem that disturbed all men of his time—loyality to the British crown, or loyality to the great dream of a new democracy in the west. Through the story march such men as Daniel Boone, John Sevier, Atakulla, the fiery chief of the Cherokees; Nancy Ward, an Indian heroine of the Revolution; Cornwallis, Ferguson, and Hamilton. Horn in the West is presented nightly except Mondays at 8:15 p.m. through September 2 at Daniel Boone outdoor theatre. Admission prices: reserved seats, $3.00; general admission, $2.00; and children under twelve, half price. CHUCKY JACK This newest of Kermit Hunter plays is in its second season at Gatlinburg, Tennessee. 'Chucky Jack, drawn from the exciting pages of Tennessee history, tells the fabulous story of John Sevier, empire builder, Revolutionary hero and saviour of the American union. It teems with fun and gaiety, with tragedy and heartbreak, with triumph and victory over the dark forces which threatened the whole future of America. The decision of John Sevier during the momentous years of 1788 marked one of the turning points of American history. 'Chucky Jack covers the twenty years of turmoil and conflict up to 1790 when Tennessee joined the American union as the sixteenth state. The drama is presented in Hunter Hills Theatre on Tennessee highway 73, a short distance east of Gatlinburg. The theatre seats 2,501 persons. 'Chucky Jack shows nightly except Sundays through September 1. Curtain time is 8:15 p.m. Ticket prices: reserved seats $1.50, $2.00, $2.50 and $3.00. Forty
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